The Battle Begins
The Battle Begins is Chapter 1 of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. It is the first chapter where Ike, the main character, gets to go out into the field as a member of the Greil Mercenaries. The chapter is rather easy on all difficulty settings and features little that should pose a problem to any player. The battle takes place in a small town that has been overrun by bandits. The townsfolk have appealed to the Greil Mercenaries for help and Titania leads a tiny force to go and combat the bandits. In this battle, the player can control four characters: Ike, Titania, Oscar and Boyd. Being the first level, all of the characters, with the exception of Titania, are at low levels. There is very little variety among the enemy units as well, making the level even easier. The majority of the enemies, being Fighters, are axe users. These enemies have no particularly outstanding stats and can easily be dispatched in one or two blows. However, a few of the enemies are of the Bandit class. These units are somewhat stronger, although not substantially. The Bandit units have more HP and are slightly stronger, although they have lower accuracy. Finally, there are a couple Myrmidons among the enemy ranks. These units are weaker in terms of attack than the axe-wielders; however, they have higher accuracy. This level also introduces the Visit command. There are three houses in this chapter that can be visited, although only two can be reached. The third house is destroyed by the Bandits before any of the player's units can reach it. Only Bandits can destroy these houses, so they should be killed as soon as possible. Visiting the houses that can be reached will yield a Steel Sword and a Seraph Robe. If the tutorials that are presented before the level are not watched, Ike will begin the chapter with four Iron Swords. The player should trade these to other characters so that Ike will not have to lose any items he obtains during the level. This is a bug found only in the North American version of the game. Script The Battle Begins/Script Terrain The Chapter 1: The Battle Begins level map has very few notable characteristics of terrain. The map has several houses spaced out all over it, being as the battle takes place in the middle of a town. The houses make the movement of both the player's units and the enemy units somewhat restricted. This can actually be used to the player's advantage if they use a few units to block of a passage between houses and slowly pick off the enemy units. Otherwise, a few thickets and trees exist on the far spaces of the map; however, these have little to no tactical use, as to reach them, the player would have to get past almost all of the enemy units anyway. Items Items in houses *Steel Sword *Seraph Robe Dropped items *Iron Sword *Iron Axe Strategy There is very little strategy needed for Chapter 1: The Battle Begins. The battle is rather simple and requires the player only to be careful with his or her characters' Hit Points. Titania, being a pre-promoted Paladin, can easily defeat pretty much all of the enemies on the battlefield with minimal effort. However, Titania is, as previously stated, a pre-promoted unit, and is the equivalent of being level 21, as opposed to Ike, Oscar and Boyd, who range from levels 1 to 3. Thus, Titania will receive minimal experience points for killing enemy units, while the other three characters can receive a nice amount of experience from them. If you want to get the most experience points out of the level, you can easily win the Chapter without using Titania at all. Simply have Oscar, Boyd and Ike kill off each enemy in a careful advance. If you do this, you will probably have to occasionally heal someone with a Vulnerary. However, you will get the most training for your units out of the level. The only thing to really take into account is the Bandits, who will be making their way to the open houses to destroy them. At a decently paced advance a player can easily reach both houses well before the Bandits can or will. Hard Mode On Hard Mode there will be quite a few more enemies to face, however the strategy doesn't change any. It may be somewhat more difficult to reach the North-Western house but it is still very do-able. The Chapter still, even on Hard Mode can be completed without using Titania whatsoever. New Units In this battle, the player will gain control of three new units. These units are Oscar, Boyd, and Titania. Oscar is a Lance Knight. This will somewhat limit his use in this first chapter due to the weapon triangle. However, Oscar has the potential to be one of the best mounted units in the game. If trained, Oscar will easily max quite a few of his stats and will have very high stats in other categories. Boyd is the young Axe-wielder who fought Ike in the Prologue. Axe wielders are somewhat rare in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, as opposed to previous games. Boyd is also the only possible Warrior you can get in the game, a class he will receive upon promotion. He will have very high attack and high Hit Points, although his defense will be a bit lax. He will be very useful in the game. Finally, Titania is a pre-promoted Paladin that the player receives in this chapter. Titania starts as a level 1 Paladin, and thus is the equivalent of a level '21' unit. She suffers from mediocre stats and will not really compare to other units of her level. She must only be used sparingly as she will gain barely any experience from battles and kills at this point, whereas the other units will gain quite a lot. She is the game's Jeigan character; however, due to her decent growth rates, she is widely regarded as an Oifey, rather than a Pure Jeigan. Trivia * If the upper right house is reached through unnoficial means it cannot be visited. If the Opening of the house is blocked by a unit the brigand will destroy it from another square. Gallery File:PoR1-screenshot.jpg de:Die 1. Schlacht (Kapitel) Category:Path of Radiance chapters